Robert Culp

Actor + Scriptwriter

Male

BornAug 16, 1930

HometownOakland, California

DiedMar 24, 2010

Death PlaceLos Angeles

NationalityAmerican

Alma MaterUniversity of Was...

Other NamesCulp, Robert Martin

Robert Martin Culp was an American actor, scriptwriter, voice actor and director, widely known for his work in television. Culp first earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy, the espionage series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents. He also had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. In all, Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.… Read More

News + Updates

'So the actor was quickly offered a role in Trackdown, another western series starring Robert Culp of future I Spy fame. Filmed in February 1958, this episode (entitled "The Bounty Hunter") introduced the character of "Josh Randall," a tough individual'

'Unfortunately, Ralph loses the instruction manual to the outfit and has to figure out how to use his new abilities in the heat of battle, with the aid of his FBI minder, Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp). Reboot Suggestions: Powerful gifts from aliens seem so'

'The same night the board also accepted the resignation of Robert Culp, who earned $137148 as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Board members said Mayo and Culp's old slots would remain vacant in a news release issued after the'

'The Sprint store's grand opening likely will be in mid-October, said C & C owner Robert Culp. The store will employ a manager and three sales associates. The staff will be trained to repair phones. C & C owns and operates 9 stores and is opening three'

Timeline

CHILDHOOD

TEENAGE

194716 Years Old
Culp was born in Oakland, California, and graduated from Berkeley High School, where he was a pole vaulter, taking second place at the 1947 CIF California State Meet.
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He attended the College of the Pacific, Washington University in St. Louis, San Francisco State College, and the University of Washington School of Drama, but never completed an academic degree. Read Less

TWENTIES

195726 Years Old
Culp first came to national attention very early in his career as the star of the 1957 - 1959 Western television series Trackdown, in which he played Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman.
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Trackdown was a spin-off of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, also on CBS. Culp's character was introduced in an episode titled "Badge of Honor". Culp later appeared in two other episodes of Zane Grey Theater — "Morning Incident" and "Calico Bait" (both 1960) playing different roles. Trackdown then had a CBS spin-off of its own: Wanted: Dead or Alive, with Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. Read Less

195928 Years Old
After his series ended in 1959, Culp continued to work in television, including a guest-starring role as Stewart Douglas in the 1960 episode "So Dim the Light" of CBS's anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson.
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He also appeared on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show. Moreover, Culp was cast as Captain Shark in a first season episode of NBC's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Among his more memorable performances were in three episodes of the science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits (1963–1965), including the classic "Demon with a Glass Hand", written by Harlan Ellison. Read Less

THIRTIES

196130 Years Old
In the 1961 season, he guest starred on the NBC's western Bonanza In the 1961–1962 season, he guest starred on ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors!

196231 Years Old
In the 1962–1963 season, he guest starred in NBC's modern Western series Empire starring Richard Egan.
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In the episode, he got into a boxing match with series co-star Ryan O'Neal.<br /><br /> Culp then played secret agent Kelly Robinson, who operated undercover as a touring tennis professional, for three years on the hit NBC series I Spy (1965–68), with co-star Bill Cosby. Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed. One episode earned him an Emmy nomination for writing. For all three years of the series he was also nominated for an acting Emmy (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series category), but lost each time to Cosby. Read Less

196332 Years Old
Culp worked as an actor in many theatrical films, beginning with three in 1963: As naval officer John F. Kennedy's good friend Ensign George Ross in PT 109, as legendary gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok in The Raiders and as the debonair fiance of Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy Sunday in New York.

Culp married five times and was the father of three sons, Joshua (1958), Jason (1961) and Joseph (1963), and two daughters, Rachel (1964) and Samantha (1982). Read Less

From 1967 to 1970, he was married to Eurasian actress France Nguyen, whom he had met when she guest-starred on I Spy.
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She appeared in four episodes, two of them written by Culp himself.<br /><br /> Culp wrote scripts for a total of seven episodes, one of which he also directed. He also wrote scripts for other television series, including Trackdown, a 2-part episode from The Rifleman, and The Greatest American Hero. Read Less

196837 Years Old
In 1968 Culp also made an uncredited cameo appearance as an inebriated Turkish waiter on Get Smart, the spy-spoof comedy series, in an I Spy parody episode titled "Die Spy".
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In this, secret agent Maxwell Smart played by Don Adams in effect assumes Culp's Kelly Robinson character as he pretends to be an international table-tennis champion. The episode faithfully recreates the I Spy theme music, montage graphics, and back-and-forth banter between Robinson and Scott—with actor/comedian Stu Gilliam imitating Cosby.<br /><br /> In 1971, Culp, Peter Falk, Robert Wagner, and Darren McGavin each stepped in to take turns with Anthony Franciosa's rotation of NBC's series The Name of the Game after Franciosa was fired, alternating a lead role of the lavish 90-minute show about the magazine business with Gene Barry and Robert Stack.<br /><br /> Culp is also remembered as the special guest murderer in three separate Columbo episodes (in 1971, 1972, and 1973) and also appeared in a 1990 episode, then as the father of one of two young murderers.<br /><br /> In 1973, Culp almost took the male lead in the TV sci-fi series Space: 1999. During negotiations with creator and executive producer Gerry Anderson, Culp expressed himself to be not only an asset as an actor, but also as a director and producer for the proposed series. The part instead went to Martin Landau. Read Less

196938 Years Old
He went on to star in the provocative Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969, probably the height of his movie career.
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Another memorable role came as another gunslinger, Thomas Luther Price, in Hannie Caulder (1971) opposite Raquel Welch. A year later, Hickey & Boggs reunited him with Cosby for the first time since I Spy. Culp also directed this feature film, in which he and Cosby portray over-the-hill private eyes. Read Less

FIFTIES

198655 Years Old
In 1986, he had a primary role as General Woods in the comedy Combat Academy.

LATE ADULTHOOD

199463 Years Old
Culp played the U.S. President in Alan J. Pakula's 1994 murder mystery The Pelican Brief starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts.

200473 Years Old
Culp lent his voice to the digital character Doctor Breen, the prime antagonist in the 2004 computer game Half-Life 2.
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This was not his first video game role, however: he also appeared in the 1993 game Voyeur.<br /><br /> The video clip of "Guilty Conscience" features Culp as an erudite and detached narrator describing the scenes where Eminem and Dr. Dre rap lyrics against each other. He only appears in the music video. In the album version, the narrator is Richard "Segal" Heredia. Read Less

200776 Years Old
On November 9, 2007 on The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly interviewed Culp about the actor's career and awarded Culp with the distinction "TV Icon of the Week".

Culp took frequent walks in the Runyon Canyon, a park close to his apartment in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. On the morning of March 24, 2010, he left the apartment to go for a walk.
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Later, a jogger found him lying unconscious on the sidewalk close to the lower entrance of the canyon. Police officers and paramedics were summoned quickly, but they were unable to revive him. Culp was taken to the hospital, but he was found to be dead at about 11:00 a.m. in the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Although the first reports from the police suggested that Culp died from striking his head on the ground when he fell, it was later found that he had collapsed and died because of a heart attack. Culp's only injury from his fall was a minor cut on his head. Read Less

On April 10, 2010, a memorial service for Culp was held at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles, with his family, friends, and some of his fans attending.
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At the time of his death, Culp had just completed the filming of a supporting role in the motion picture, The Assignment. Culp was also working on several screenplays at the time of his death. One of these screenplays, an adaptation of the story of Terry and the Pirates, had already been accepted for filming, and it was scheduled for the start of production in Hong Kong later in 2012, with Culp being the film director.<br /><br /> Terry and the Pirates had been Culp's favorite comic strip as a boy, and it was his longtime wish to make a film based on it. Culp's remains were buried in the Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, California, located not far from his hometown of Oakland. Read Less